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Evil by Tijan

You know that group of people in school that everyone fears? Popular. Beautiful. The in-crowd?

That was my family. Kind of.

We were above that group. We held court over everyone else. We were the best looking. We were the mysterious and elusive ones. Most of the girls wanted to (and did) date the guys, but they didn’t want to be one of us. They couldn’t be. They were our prey.

We were the feared.

But like every family, nothing is as it seems. That was my truth.

Kellan was in his own league. He was our leader and he was the one no one messed with. No one dared. He was ruthless, powerful, and no one could match him…

As I drove through the backstreets of Poehler and headed out of town, I saw Leah and a few others leaving one of the pizza places, like a normal teenager enjoying time with her friends.

I’d never been a part of that world. None of the Bradens had. And for some reason, it never bothered us. We were meant for different things. Still…a part of me wished things could’ve been different. That I could’ve grown up as a normal girl with a normal family and even a normal boyfriend.

When I slowed and turned onto the gravel road that led to my home, I knew it was useless to wish that.

I wasn’t normal. No one in my family was, but it would’ve been nice to know what normal felt like.

We lived in a three-story brick house. And as I parked to the left of the garage, I cursed when I saw that every single light was off. That didn’t mean everyone was asleep, not in my family. It meant that they were outside, probably down by the river.

It was a little reprieve for me.

I let myself in to the empty house, kept the lights off, toed off my sandals, and moved into the kitchen. The bare tile felt cool underneath my feet. As I opened the fridge, I pulled out a container of orange juice and then screamed.

Kellan stood right behind me, a foreboding expression on his face.

“Oh God.” I laughed, weakly, as I set down the orange juice. “You gave me a heart attack just now.”

Kellan cocked his head to the side, his eyes on mine.

When I shut the door, the fridge’s light was replaced by the moonlight. It fell over his face and gave him a shadowed, mysterious look. Anyone else would’ve shuddered in scared anticipation. I just shuddered because it was cold.

“What?” I asked. Kellan had something to say, I could tell. I didn’t have the patience to play his games.

“Where were you?” he asked, his voice low and gruff, almost raw.

“I had things to do. What are you talking about? I told you that.” I wanted him to leave it alone. I didn’t want to tell him about the painting, not after so many years of secrecy.

“No, you didn’t tell me anything. And I knew you didn’t want me to ask, just like you never want me to ask.” Kellan moved forward and leaned against the fridge. I knew he didn’t intend it, but his stance seemed predatory.

“I saw Leah leaving the pizza place tonight. You sure you want to miss out on that?” I asked nervously. I downed the rest of the orange juice, and when I turned toward the sink, Kellan grabbed my arm and hauled me back.

“What?” I asked. Kellan had never been intentionally rough with me. I’d never seen it, but I knew he had it in him. In fact, something told me that he had a lot in him that I wouldn’t want to know.

His fingers tightened on my arm. “What were you doing tonight?”

I looked at his hand, almost distantly, though I felt the pain intimately. “Don’t ask me that.”

“Why? Are you going to tell me the truth?”

I looked up and met his gaze. His eyes were a piercing blue, so beautiful to look at, but I swallowed and steadied myself. “I would lie. And I don’t want to lie to you.”

Hello~ (waves)

I didn’t begin writing until after undergraduate college. There’d been storylines and characters in my head all my life, but it came to a boiling point one day and I HAD to get them out of me. So the computer was booted up and I FINALLY felt it click. Writing is what I needed to do. After that, I had to teach myself how to write. I can’t blame my teachers for not teaching me all those years in school. It was my fault. I was one of the students that was wishing I was anywhere but at school! So after that day, it took me lots of work until I was able to put together something that resembled a novel. I’m hoping I got it right since someone must be reading this profile! And I hope you keep enjoying my future stories.

This is the first book I’ve had the pleasure of reading by this author and I am officially hooked! The only single complaint I have about this entire book is that it ended! Seriously, I’m kicking myself for not reading this author sooner since I’ve been recommended to read several of her books for quite some time now and I’ve kept promising I’ll get around to it soon. Well, this was one heck of an introduction to this author for me and boy was I floored! In the synopsis the words “nothing is as it seems” were used and this is an extremely appropriate description for this book. This story kept me in a constant state of anticipation needing to see what was going to happen next. Every single time I thought I had everything figured out a new twist would get thrown into the mix that I absolutely did not see coming and I’d be right back to having no idea what was going to happen next. I love when the books I’m reading keep me guessing and when they aren’t predictable so this one was a complete delight for me to read!

This story centers on the life of the Braden family and this is no ordinary family to say the least. This family’s level of dysfunction puts all others to shame and they are so not what I first expected. Shay is one of the siblings who is about to find out some pretty shocking things about herself that will change her life forever. This book took me so far down the rabbit hole that I couldn’t even tell up from down and I loved every single second of this amazingly well written journey! I am a huge new fan of this author and I will now be reading everything of hers that I can get my hands on. In fact, I went and purchased this book before I had even finished reading the ARC I was reviewing since I loved it that much. This will be one that I reread over and over again until I have it memorized and I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone to read right now!